


Birthday Present

by telperion_15



Category: Primeval
Genre: Birthday, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-29
Updated: 2012-01-29
Packaged: 2017-10-30 07:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/329228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/telperion_15/pseuds/telperion_15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Ryan's birthday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birthday Present

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written as a birthday fic for deinonychus_1.

For once, Connor was up before him on a Saturday. Ryan could hear him clattering around in the kitchen as he came out of the bedroom. Normally, the younger man could be relied upon not to emerge until noon at the earliest at the weekends (unless of course he was lured out by a suitable incentive), but on this occasion he’d dragged himself out of bed at the positively civilised hour of nine o’clock.

Ryan stretched. Truth be told, he’d stayed in bed himself a little longer than he usually would. His normal morning routine consisted of an early start, a five-mile run, followed by a healthy breakfast. Even on weekends. But for once he’d decided to give himself the morning off. After all, if he couldn’t have a lie-in on today of all days, when could he?

As he pushed open the kitchen door his nostrils were assailed by the combined aromas of scrambled eggs, bacon, and coffee. Connor was pottering around the kitchen, simultaneously stirring the eggs and assembling bacon butties in a manner that, to most people who knew him, would have seemed surprisingly organised.

When he heard Ryan he jumped slightly, and then frowned at the other man. “I thought you were still asleep. This was supposed to be breakfast in bed.”

Ryan’s eyebrows rose at the grumble. “Sorry. I can go back to bed if you like.”

“No, it’s alright. Sit down at the table. I’m nearly done.”

Ryan sat obediently, opening his mouth to ask Connor why he was going to so much trouble. But then his attention was caught by a package sitting in the middle of the table. “Connor?” he asked suspiciously. “What’s this?”

“It’s your birthday present,” Connor replied airily.

Suddenly the breakfast made sense. “How did you know it was my birthday?” said Ryan. “I’m pretty sure I’ve never told you.”

“It was in your personnel file,” said Connor, as he dished up the scrambled eggs.

“But those files are classified military documents,” pointed out Ryan. “How did you get into them?”

“The Home Office’s security isn’t as good as it thinks it is.”

“Connor! You could get arrested for doing that!”

“But I didn’t. So stop panicking.” Connor set a plate down in front of Ryan, ignoring the soldier’s outraged look. “Eat it before it gets cold.”

Ryan had to laugh. Connor did some stupid things sometimes, but this one really took the biscuit. Still, he couldn’t deny he was touched by the effort. He reached out towards the package.

Connor slapped his hand away. “After breakfast! You don’t want all my effort to go to waste, do you?”

Ryan glanced down at the plate of food. It did smell good. And he could tell that the accompanying cup of coffee was made from proper grounds. Still…

Connor interpreted Ryan’s hesitation correctly. “I know there was shell in it last time,” he said, a little petulantly. “But I was extra careful this time. No shell at all. Probably,” he amended.

Ryan snorted, but made no move to pick up his fork. Instead, he reached over and curled his hand round the back of Connor’s neck, pulling the younger man closer so he could kiss him softly. “Thank you, Connor,” he said quietly.

Blushing slightly, Connor dropped his gaze to the tabletop. “Yeah, well…” he stammered. “It’s nothing you don’t deserve.” He nudged Ryan’s plate. “Now, are you going to eat that, or am I going to have to feed you? I do a very good ‘here comes the aeroplane’, you know.”

Ryan laughed and dug into the scrambled eggs. He was still curious about the present, but figured that the anticipation was half the fun. And not just when it came to birthday gifts.

To his credit, Connor’s skill with eggs _had_ improved, and Ryan only found one piece of shell, which he surreptitiously hid in a napkin while Connor was pouring out more coffee. And the bacon butty was to die for, the bread cut thick, and the bacon just crispy enough and smothered in brown sauce.

But finally his plate was empty, and Ryan was sipping his second cup of coffee appreciatively as he eyed the present. “Can I open it now?” he asked, faking a whine that made Connor sigh and roll his eyes.

“Well, since you’ve been such a good boy…” he replied, and pushed the package towards Ryan.

“Oh, you know how good I can be,” murmured Ryan suggestively. But his attention was really focused on the package. He didn’t get presents very often. The lads in his team were very much of the ‘buy the boss a pint on his birthday’ mindset, and since he normally moved around so much on assignments, he’d pretty much told his family not to bother with gifts, since it was quite likely they’d never reach him.

So this present was a bit of an event. Not that he’d tell Connor that – he didn’t want to embarrass his lover. But he knew that whatever it was, he’d love it. Just as he loved…

“Go on, open it,” Connor urged, and Ryan abandoned his reflections to tear at the blue paper decorated with small green tanks (and where on earth had Connor found that?).

“Connor…” Ryan was almost speechless. “This is amazing. You didn’t have to do this.”

It was a GPS unit – an _expensive_ GPS unit, by the looks of it – and something Ryan had been meaning to purchase ever since his previous model had given up the ghost a month earlier. He seemed to remember cursing quite vehemently at the time about its loss, but he didn’t think Connor had been paying attention – the young man always tended to tune out anything associated with what he termed ‘Ryan’s outdoorsy activities’. Clearly Connor had been more on the ball on this occasion than Ryan had given him credit for.

“I wanted to get you something nice,” said Connor defensively. “Something I knew you wanted.”

“But how did you afford it?” Ryan wanted to bite his tongue off the moment he’d said it. It wasn’t polite to ask something like that. But he knew that Connor didn’t have that much money.

Connor looked slightly uncomfortable. “I sold my limited edition signed Star Wars Episode IV poster,” he said quietly.

“Bloody hell!” Ryan wasn’t really a _Star Wars_ fan, despite Connor’s repeated attempts to turn him into one, but he had an at least vague idea how much something like that would go for on Ebay. “You didn’t have to do that, Connor. That was one of your most prized possessions.”

“I don’t mind,” said Connor stubbornly. “You’re more important, and I wanted to buy you a birthday present. If you don’t like it I can always take it back.”

“Connor, I love it,” said Ryan. “It’s fantastic. Thank you.”

Connor blushed again, and suddenly started gathering up plates and cutlery. “I’ll just get the washing up done and out of the way,” he said. “Is there anything you particularly want to do for you birthday?”

Ryan watched Connor run hot water into the sink for a moment or two, adding too much washing-up liquid like he always did, and dropping knives and forks into the billowing bubbles.

“I can think of one or two things,” he said, standing up and moving behind Connor, sliding his hands around Connor’s waist and kissing the side of Connor’s neck. “Leave that until later,” he murmured.

“You could have said that earlier,” Connor mock-grumbled, but he nonetheless twisted round in Ryan’s arms, his soapy hands settling on Ryan’s back and creating two wet patches that Ryan barely noticed as Connor kissed him.


End file.
